By Erik Luchsinger
1. Interstellar
Of course this is at the top. if you're a sci-fi nerd like me, there should be no question. If you like excellent acting, convincing visuals, (mostly real) scientific theories, and a bitchin' deep-space adventure story, you know what I'm talking about. Interstellar was amazing, and it gives me hope that intelligent sci-fi might not be dead.
2. Nightcrawler
This movies really made me feel like I was a grimy LA news stringer and made me pine for late-night highway drives and the random carnage of the city. It's a real thriller and incredibly engaging. It kept me enthralled the whole time, which is saying a lot considering the run time. Jake Gyllenhal's incredibly convincing role as a sociopathic news stringer was just icing on the cake, and that's why it gets such high marks.
3. The Drop
James Gandolfini's last film was not a disappointment, as The Drop was one of the best movies I saw this year. It was a mob film that wasn't trying to be Goodfellas or Godfather. It had a fresh take on mobsters and wannabes, and a vein of gallows humor that ran quite deep. I had no idea what I was going into when I went to see The Drop, but I was pleasantly surprised. It didn't get the fanfare that it deserved, and if you haven't seen it I recommend that you get it on DVD/Blu-ray/VOD, as it was great.
4. Gone Girl
Unlike The Drop, this movie got a lot of fanfare, and rightly so. Gone Girl was a thrilling mystery, not to mention a (probably unneeded) reminder that Ben Affleck can act with the best of them. The characters were deep, the plot was well constructed and wholly engrossing, and overall the movie was a great watch. Bonus: seeing Barney Stinson/NPH get murdered during sex was really, really satisfying.
5. Fury
Between Fury and Inglorious Basterds it seems like Brad Pitt belongs in WWII movies. Fury might look like a run-of-the-mill WWII movie, and in a lot of ways it is, but it is fantastic nonetheless. It may not seem like a movie about a single tank crew could be interesting, but the characters in Fury are so deep and emotionally intense that every scene is engaging, even when things are exploding and dying all over the place. When they are, though, the movie really shines, The final battle in Fury is among the best I've ever seen, and all of the action scenes are just really fucking sweet.
6. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Despite having too many "of the's" in the title, Dawn was a great movie. I've been quite disenchanted with the current trend of rebooting old movie franchises, but this gave me hope. The human characters are good, but the apes really makes the movie. Despite being CGI (and excellent CGI at that), they have a lot of emotion and depth to them that makes the whole struggle between the two camps so much more real. Awesome battle scenes and great dialogue contributed to this being one of my top 10 as well.
7. Edge of Tomorrow
I am very wary of Tom Cruise. I really dislike how he's always the "save the day badass" guy, and a lot of his movies seem to be the same action crap. Not to mention that he's a crazy scientologist. I didn't even see Edge of Tomorrow in theaters because I was so wary of it. When I did see it though, I was surprised how awesome it was. It had a really interesting concept and it was explored and presented in an interesting and easily understandable way. The aliens were cool and the visuals were quite stunning. The best part about it was seeing Tom Cruise play a wimpy bitch of a character and then progressing into the confident character he usually plays. Character development in a big budget sci-fi action movie, imagine that!
8. Guardians of the Galaxy
I had some gripes about this movie, but overall I liked it. Despite a completely asinine plot to escape jail (space cops can shoot in zero gravity, dumbasses!), Guardians had a lot of witty dialogue and humor, not to mention cool characters. The characters really drove the movie for me, so much so that it still made top 10 despite a generic Marvel plot.
9. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
I really liked the first two Hunger Games despite not being a 14 year old white girl, and Mockingjay Part 1 was no exception. This one was a bit darker and more mature, featuring a lot of political intrigue, posturing, and propaganda-slinging. While it lacked some of the emotional shocks present in the first two, and Katniss only has one shocked/sad/angry face, it was a good watch and promises an awesome finale, hopefully featuring President Snow getting brutally murdered and an R rating. What, a guy can hope, can't he?
10. The Giver
Ok, I didn't really see that many movies this year. In all honesty I've just started taking movies seriously enough to write about them every week. So yeah, if I'd been to the theaters more often this year I might have a different number 10. Nonetheless, The Giver was a cool adaptation of a favorite childhood book. It's a simple story and undoubtedly a cash-in on the popularity of converting YA fiction into movies, but it was fun to watch and really brought back some memories. As far as YA distopias go it's not the meanest by any means, but that made it kind of refreshing. It's not just brutal for brutality's sake, and it's got a nice message behind it. Plus, it was leaps and bounds better than Sex Tape, Annabelle, and As Above, So Below, so here it is.
Honorable Mentions
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For: It's good, but it's not as cool considering we've already seen the visual style in the last Sin City.
Godzilla: Cool monsters! Explosions! Sweet visuals! No guys in rubber suits.
Exodus: Gods and Kings: Seeing the 10 plagues in crisp, 2014 CGI was really fucking sweet.
PS.
Transformers: Age of Extinction was the highest grossing movie this year and the 10th highest grossing movie of all fucking time. Guys, come on. Upgrade your tastes, and maybe Michael bay will stop insulting everyone's intelligence with schlocky crap every fucking year.
Looks like I could have edited this a bit more, eh?
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